soft-soap
verb
To save this word, you'll need to log in.
soft-soaped; soft-soaping; soft-soaps
****
Judging from the following article taken from Premier Christian News Donald Trump is soft-soaping American evangelicalism and in some quarters it appears to be working:
Former US president, Donald Trump has spoken of the
importance of Jesus Christ to the American people, as part of a Christmas
message to Christians in Dallas.
The 45th President addressed the 4,000 strong crowd
at First Baptist Church, Dallas on 19th December.
Speaking as part of the church's Christmas worship
service, Trump said:
"More than 2,000 years ago, an angel of the
Lord appeared to humble shepherds and proclaimed the reason for our Christmas
joy. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour, which is
Christ the Lord.
"Our country needs a Saviour right now. And
our country has a Saviour - and it's not me," he continued.
"That's somebody else much higher up than me.
Much higher."
In the ten-minute 'Christmas greeting' Trump also
aired his political concerns on the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan,
immigration and inflation as he warned that the United States was "in
great trouble" under it's current "dark cloud" of leadership.
Trump went on credit key moments in history to the
Church and Jesus' example:
"The life and death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ forever changed the world," he declared.
"And it's impossible to think of the life of
our own country without the influence of His example and of His teachings.
"Our miraculous founding, overcoming civil
war, abolishing slavery, defeating communism and fascism, reaching boundless
heights of science and discovery, so many incredible things.
"None of this could have ever happened without
Jesus Christ and his followers and his Church. None of it.
"And we have to remember that Jesus Christ is
the ultimate source of our strength and of our hope and here and everywhere and
for all time."
Following his speech, Trump was met with a standing
ovation by members of the evangelical congregation, while lead pastor Robert
Jeffress referred to Trump as one of his "closest friends" and
"a great friend to Christians everywhere" as he praised the former
president for his "pro-life, pro-religious liberty and pro-Israel"
political stances.
Many social media users have criticised Trump for
using his Christmas message to 'push his politics'.
One Twitter user said: "The evangelicals can
open up the churches so Trump and others can go and deliver speeches instead of
worshipping our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ."
Another commented: "There was flagrant
political content. Church should lose its tax-exempt status."
***
I don't buy any of that from Trump; in my opinion it's likely to be a counterfeit expression. Given what I've seen of Trump-evangelicalism Trump's primary aim is to secure the votes and support of his right-wing evangelical constituency. The probable long term effect of getting Trump or his ultra-right successor into power is that of destabilizing the democratic status quo & turning America into a right-wing dictatorship.
It looks as though many evangelicals are swallowing Trumpism because Trump knows what they want to hear. But they are not the only ones Trump has soft soaped: He also gave positive signals to professional Christian conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and the QAnon theorists, many of whom are Christians. (See here and here). Although to be fair to Alex Jones he eventually twigged that he had be sold down the river by Trump.
No comments:
Post a Comment